"Guardians of the Galaxy" #7 teams the regular writer, Brian Bendis, with artists Sara Pichelli and Valerio Schiti. After fighting the newly-arrived Angela to a standstill on the Moon, it's time to learn who she is and where she came from. At least, from the Marvel Universe's perspective.

As issues go, it's a little chatty. Fans of Bendis probably won't mind that the issue is mostly just characters talking and asking questions -- not least because Bendis' dialogue is about as engaging as it comes -- but that said, there's almost nothing in this book that resembles an action sequence. This is essentially 20 pages of exposition, and that's bound to upset some people.

No matter how good it is, Bendis' verbal-sparring alone can't carry a book, and for those reasons it's a good job he's got artists like Pichelli and Schiti on board. Both of them are utterly fantastic, particularly when it comes to facial expressions and body language, and the styles are similar enough (and convincingly smoothed over by colourist Cory Petit) that the transition is almost hard to notice.

It takes bags of talent to make characters talking into such a visually arresting comic, and under lesser artists this type of story would've suffered immensely. As it is, it's one of the best-looking comics Marvel currently publishes.

It is a little disappointing that Angela's introductory storyline has been so heavily back-loaded with information, and almost as soon as it's delivered she's sent packing. It's not so much a story arc as it is an extended entrance. Readers now know who she is, what she can do and where she's from. But at the moment, it's too early to say whether she's actually interesting outside the context of being a character created by Neil Gaiman, originally appearing in another company's comic.

Still, answers about Angela are delivered in spades, and on that level it's beyond reproach. Too much information is better than too little, and frankly any story with Sara Pichelli visuals has to be worth buying. If the lack of action bothers you, think of it as a breather as the team wades into the "Infinity" crossover next issue. Somehow, I don't think a lack of action will be a problem for the next few months.